IB Find Short Roll

Analyze roll options for short positions or find best short options to open against long stock using real-time data from Interactive Brokers.

Prerequisites

User must have TWS or IB Gateway running locally with API enabled:

• Paper trading: port 7497

• Live trading: port 7496

Instructions

Step 1: Gather Data

Note: If uv is not installed or pyproject.toml is not found, replace uv run python with python in all commands below.

uv run python scripts/roll.py SYMBOL [--strike STRIKE] [--expiry YYYYMMDD] [--right C|P] [--port PORT] [--account ACCOUNT]

The script returns JSON to stdout with all position and candidate data.

Step 2: Format Report

Read templates/markdown-template.md for formatting instructions. Generate a markdown report from the JSON data and save to sandbox/ .

Step 3: Report Results

Present key findings to the user: recommended position, credit/debit, and the saved report path.

Behavior

• If short option position exists (mode: "roll" ): Analyzes roll candidates to different expirations/strikes

• If long option position exists (mode: "spread" ): Finds best short call/put to create a vertical spread

• If long stock exists (mode: "new_short" ): Finds best covered call (or protective put) to open

• If none of the above: Returns error (use --strike/--expiry to specify manually)

Arguments

• SYMBOL

• Ticker symbol (e.g., GOOG, AAPL, TSLA)

• --strike

• Current short strike price (optional, auto-detects from portfolio)

• --expiry

• Current short expiration in YYYYMMDD format (optional, auto-detects)

• --right

• Option type: C for call, P for put (default: C)

• --port

• IB port (default: 7496 for live trading)

• --account

• Specific account ID (optional)

JSON Output

The script outputs JSON with mode field indicating the analysis type:

Common Fields

• success

• Boolean

• generated

• Timestamp

• mode

• "roll", "spread", or "new_short"

• symbol

• Ticker

• underlying_price

• Current stock price

• earnings_date

• Next earnings date or null

• expirations_analyzed

• List of expiry dates checked

Mode-specific Fields

• roll: current_position , buy_to_close , roll_candidates (dict of expiry -> candidates)

• spread: long_option , right , candidates_by_expiry

• new_short: long_position , right , candidates_by_expiry

Example Usage

Auto-detect GOOG position (short option, long option, or long stock)

uv run python scripts/roll.py GOOG --port 7496

Specify exact short position to roll

uv run python scripts/roll.py GOOG --strike 350 --expiry 20260206 --right C

Find short call to sell against long call (vertical spread)

uv run python scripts/roll.py AUR --right C

Find covered put for long stock

uv run python scripts/roll.py TSLA --right P

Dependencies

• ib-async

• yfinance